[ireland.com] Dublin Bus unveils tour buses run on biofuel

Navan Junction

Dublin Bus today unveiled the first of its buses to be fueled by biodiesel.

The company will run five of its city tour vehicles on 5 per cent plant oil and 95 per cent conventional diesel.

The pilot scheme came about following a review by the bus firm into the viability of using biofuels and biodiesel given the increase in fuel costs. The Dublin Bus fleet uses nearly 30 million litres of fuel annually.

The use of hybrid vehicles and pure plant oil was considered, but biodiesel was judged to be the preferred option. It is formed when vegetable oil is modified using a process known as esterification. It can then be mixed with conventional diesel.

Minister for Transport Martin Cullen today said: "Measures such as this are welcome, and I would hope that similar initiatives would be taken on board by other public transport companies and extended to all Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann fleets".

The mix for the Dublin Bus trial is limited by 5 per cent because exceeding this would make warranties on its Volvo and Cummins vehicles null and void.

Greyhound Recycling and Recovery will supplying the biodiesel.

© The Irish Times/ireland.com

_Kaiser_

Of course this is merely a publicity stunt, despite the Minister's hope of expanding it to the rest of the CIE fleet, as they've no intention of voiding the warranty (how long does it last anyway?) on all those shiny new buses they've been buying over the past few years. I don't see them replacing them with eco-friendly equivalents either somehow

Stark

5%, oh wow. </sarc>

popebenny16

Older viewers will recall that BAC had 10 LPG buses a few years back operating on the number 3. Of course, nothing is stopping them from ordering all future buses to be bio fuel with the manufacturers consent, thus avioding warranty issues.

Victor

Stark wrote:

5%, oh wow. </sarc>

Yes on 0.5% of their buses.

dowlingm

It's more important to get hybrid buses into the DB fleet than biodiesel (although if you could get both that would be nice). They have a higher cap cost but way lower fuel burn. Toronto is starting to take delivery of hybrid single deck lowfloor but they cost E500k euro apiece as opposed to E375k standard so only a portion of the current order will be hybrid as they can't front up for the lot.

D'Peoples Voice

I know this article is about a car rather than a bus, but I'm sure there are some vague similarities!

http://irishcar.com/envir/biofuel210501.htm

According to Volvo UK environment manager John Pitts, bio-diesel 'is dirtier, smellier, and less fuel-efficient than low sulphur diesel'.

The most alarming statistic from recent Swedish research is that bio-diesel emissions are 10 times more carcinogenic than standard low sulphur fuel," says John Pitts. "And tailpipe emissions of smog-forming oxides of nitrogen can be up to 40% higher than diesel engines."

"There is no perfect fuel, even hydrogen doesn't have all the answers. They all have their own individual benefits and problems. Bio-diesel may well be one of these future fuel choices, but at Volvo we favour fuels like methane/CNG."

Volvo is planning to introduce a new Bi-Fuel range of LPG and CNG models this autumn, as the first manufacturer to offer a complete range of Bi-Fuel models that have been designed and developed in-house and are factory-fitted on the production line.

dowlingm

Funny how that Volvo one gets around - I've yet to see anyone else say that. Toronto got CNG buses but they are being retired - I think there was an issue with using them in underground bus stops.

John R

popebenny16 wrote:

Older viewers will recall that BAC had 10 LPG buses a few years back operating on the number 3. Of course, nothing is stopping them from ordering all future buses to be bio fuel with the manufacturers consent, thus avioding warranty issues.

There was 1 CNG bus on the 3 route for a few years, it was on lease and eventually was returned to Volvo.